Yosemite Slam

 

I left the CA coast just north of Santa Cruz this morning under heavy clouds and some fog, but I didn’t have any problems with rain today.
My plan was to ride over the top of Yosemite to Tonopah, Nevada, and then the Al-E-Inn at Rachel.

 

But crossing Yosemite took a lot longer than I expected.
Over the top of the Yosemite highlands, massive amounts of the park are still a long way from recovering from last year’s wildfire.

 

 

 

But I came upon an overlook with a surprising view of Half Dome and El Capitan.

 

 

 

 

By ‘surprising’, I mean I wasn’t supposed to see Half Dome at all. I took a wrong turn and ended up there by mistake. :-)

 

 

When I had stopped at the entrance to the park, the ranger told me that of the two passes over Yosemite, Sonoma was still closed and Tioga (which I wanted to use) had only been re-opened 2 hours ago. It had been closed all morning because they had what she called a “dusting of snow” overnight.
“A Dusting”.
LOL.

 

She said it might be a little chilly going over the top of Tioga Pass.
“Chilly”.
ROFLOL.

 

So I headed off in high spirits, expecting to see some snow up on the mountain peaks.
She was right – It got chilly. All the way up to 7,000 ft.
Then 8,000, and 9,000…
Tioga Pass tops out at 9,943 feet.
This has a predictable effect on the temperatures.
The temps had dropped from the 70’s to the 30’s and it was snowing.

 

This had a predictable effect on the comfort level of one of the riders.

 

The problem is that you don’t just go up to the top and right back down.
It takes about an hour to cross the highlands. I don’t remember any of it being… balmy.

 

 

 

After finally ending up around Mono Lake, I had a decision to make.
I wouldn’t be able to make it to the Little Al-E-Inn for a burger and fries with free camping, and I was a bit glad about it. I was chilled from the snowy ride, I was still riding in elevations around 7,000 feet, and the wind was working itself into a frenzy again.
So I decided to be smart (uh-oh) and just ride to Tonopah and get a motel for the night and catch up on the blog.

 

All I had to do is cross some more valleys like this:

 

 

When I got there, I couldn’t wait to get into a hot shower, so I stopped at the first seedy motel I came to.
Oops – no vacancy.
So up to the next one – “The Clown Motel” (no kidding).
The guy says “Sorry – no rooms. You won’t find any rooms in town. All the contractors are building that new solar plant.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescent_Dunes_Solar_Energy_Project

 

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
It’s another 109 miles to Rachel, and besides -  I didn’t really want to sleep in that cold wind again with my light sleeping bag.
Now the sun has set, and it’s looking like I won’t have a place to sleep.
The lady in the gas station said there was a really nice motel in the next town south - Beatty - with a Denny’s next door. I called it and got a room.
So here I am...
In the Motel 6.
In Beatty.
92 MILES from Tonopah. Yeah, I got to experience a moonlit desert ride. Strange... usually a farm is all dark at night, but I passed a couple of ranches way out in the boondocks that had lots of flashing lights...

 
 

I guess I won’t be going through Rachel again after all.
Instead, I’ll be going through Las Vegas again on my way to Utah.